"Once the principle of setting up a European Treasury is agreed upon, the European Council could authorize the ECB to step into the breach, indemnifying the ECB in advance against risks to its solvency," he says.

Fannie Mae and the executives it is indemnifying are lawyering this case to death and impeding justice while swindling U.S. taxpayers, since the federal government, which took control of the company in 2008, is ultimately footing the bill.

The financier Allen Stanford is trying to force a reluctant group of Lloyd's of London underwriters to foot legal bills for his defence against $7bn (£4. 5bn) fraud charges laid by the US government, in a battle over an insurance policy indemnifying executives of his defunct business empire against litigation.